


Goodnight

by lets_play_checkers



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:35:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24973198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lets_play_checkers/pseuds/lets_play_checkers
Summary: There had been many times Katara had thought Aang was going to die. However, when the day finely came, she thought she would be better prepared.
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar), Sokka/Suki (Avatar)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 35





	Goodnight

They had known this was how it was going to end—for years, in fact—and when it finally happened, it couldn't have been less of a surprise. But here they were, in a house that was so often warm with love, now cold with the icy presence of death. He couldn't be taken yet; he was the Avatar, after all, always a fighter. It would take more than death to kill him.  
She knelt next to the bed, a man too young to be in this sad of a state, lying in this bed barely breathing. The water, clear and comforting, flowed effortlessly between her palms. But, at this point, even this powerful of a remedy could not help him and no one from the Spirit World was coming to bail them out this time.  
Nevertheless, she kept trying, she kept doing what she could even with the piteous stares from her brother and closest friends on her back. They gazed on with pain and broken prayers, wishing they could be helping, too. But this was not their fight. It wasn't Katara’s, either, but she wasn't going to walk away from someone in need. Especially her stranger- turned-friend-turned-lover. Even she knew, at this point, it was hopeless. But she couldn't get her feet to move or her legs to stand until every last bit of life that was still left in his body to cling to was gone. She would not leave his side for the last time until his smallest breath was gone.  
So, she persisted.  
Maybe hours or maybe minutes went by, but eventually the air in the room changed. And they knew it was time.  
And yet, they waited.  
Sokka and Zuko each did a half-turn and looked at Toph, staring at the floor in the general direction of the man who saved her from a life of demure obedience. She shed a single tear and shook her head. She could always tell when someone was gone, and she had never been wrong before.  
Zuko was unsure of what to do, so he kneeled next to her, cooing softly for Katara to get up, get some rest, that he and Sokka could take it from here, that she needed to eat something, that she needed to stand. But she stayed kneeling, still attempting to work. She was tired—tired of having the people she loved ripped from her at too young an age to be gone. But that couldn't stop her.  
She wanted to cry, but crying was for later. For when she knew it would be safe to leave his side. To know that leaving would put him at risk when she could have saved him. But she can't save everyone.  
Sokka had known the feeling of losing a partner. The pain is sharp and dull and deep all at once. It shook you down to the very roots of your person, ripped up the garden that was once your mind with thoughts of whom had passed, but just because he had been in her place before did not mean he knew how to help. So, he resigned himself to sitting cross-legged next to her and gently rubbing her back until maybe, just maybe, he could bring her some form of comfort.  
Katara knew he was dead, she was not ignorant of that glaring truth. But she didn't know why she couldn't stand, why her feet wouldn't move from this spot, why her hands wouldn't stop working. Why she wouldn't cry. She wished she could have done more—that there was some magic cure for what ailed him. But she and everyone else in the room knew there was nothing that they could have done, except make him comfortable. Every day, she had read to him. Every day, Zuko had brought him tea, a different blend from every corner of the world; he knew Aang loved new things. Every day, Sokka regaled him with great stories of whatever mediocre adventure he had gone on. Every day, Toph would give him the daily rundown of all of her new metal bending students. But these things could not distract them from what they all knew: he was already a dead man on borrowed time. And today was when he would be called home.  
Without her knowledge, she had moved the water from over Aang's chest, to the blue and orange pot that sat idly on the bedside table. Finally, she had begun to cry—cry like she never had before. More than when Suki died, more than when her mother was ripped from this Earth by evil hands. More than she ever thought she could, and more than she ever would again.  
Soon, her sobs turned to screams. Wailing could be heard from every corner of the town. She screamed and beat the floor somberly with her fist. Zuko was the first to speak to her. He held in his own tears in solidarity for the ones that flowed so freely from her eyes. He gently tugged her arm as she shook. Sokka did the same. They again tried to pull her from the damp portion of carpet she had soaked through with her tears. But she would not move.  
"Get off of me," she said through choking tears. Her brother and her friend gently let go of her arm, not enough for her to be free, but enough that she felt comfort in that they had only partially denied her direction.

"We are trying to help. You need rest, please, it's been days you need to rest, you're exhausted," Sokka insisted sternly, with all the care and love in the world he wanted to throw her over his shoulder and lay her somewhere he felt she would be safe. But this was not the time for such aggression.  
So, they waited.  
Zuko shifted slightly so he was in front of her, enough she could see him clearly but not enough to startle her. His voice was calm and warm. He had dealt with death before and more than he would like to admit. But it wouldn't be enough to move her from where she wished to stay immortalized for the rest of time.  
Even so, he continued, "Katara you should listen to your brother. I promise we will take care of it from here, you need time to process this."  
"What do you two not understand about, 'leave me alone'?!" She howled. She sounded like a wounded fox. as much as they all wanted to leave her alone and walk away from this, they knew they would never forgive themselves if they left her alone in this state, when she needed them most. So, once again, they grabbed her gently by the elbow and pulled her off of his still-warm body.  
They felt guilty for it, for how she kicked and screamed, for how hurt and lost she felt. She sobbed for the rest of that day, this time in her own room. They all refused to leave until she slept, until she had calmed down, until they thought she would be okay. They would wait all day. Eventually, her body couldn't take it anymore, and she slept. She slept so deep and her dreams so vivid, that when she woke, it took the sight of Zuko, slumped in a chair in the corner, Sokka on the floor next to her bed, and Toph leaning against the wall, to confirm the memories that sleep had stolen from her. She shed a few more silent tears before reaching over to the now-cold teacup Zuko had made her hours ago. It was bitter and ice-cold, but it soothed her hoarse, dry throat.  
She stood and the room shifted gently. She was quiet and light-footed, to not wake her sleeping friends. She wanted to apologize for how she acted, but they would never let her; they knew it wasn't something she could have held back, even if she wanted to.  
She wandered the quiet house, knowing nobody was awake, and walked into the room she dreaded seeing. She didn't want to prove to herself that it was real. But there he lay, still, unbreathing, cold. She sobbed gently as she watched over him. She felt guilty for not trying hard enough, but deep down she knew there was nothing she could do. For one last time, in the dead of night, with nobody else around, she walked over to his side, wished him goodnight, and saw herself back to bed.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to rgirl & Victor for editing this for me <3


End file.
